Chef

Justin Yu

Houston

About Justin Yu

Justin Yu is the Chef/Owner of Theodore Rex restaurant, Better Luck Tomorrow bar, and Public Services Wine and Whisky, all in Houston, Texas. He's a native Houstonian, and launched his first restaurant, Oxheart, in 2012. He followed that by opening Public Services, a wine and whisky bar with sommelier/partner Justin Vann in 2014, and Better Luck Tomorrow, a neighborhood bar with bartender/owner Bobby Heugel in 2017. Earlier this year, he transformed Oxheart into a modern bistro called Theodore Rex.

Where I Go Out

"Not many people know Korean food outside of Korean barbecue, but Bon Ga shows off just how great Korean cuisine is even when you don’t have to cook it yourself. Their beef dumplings in a deeply flavored soup are made with handmade wrappers and braised beef mixed with garlic, chives, and cabbage. It’s a great, homey dish that just seems to get better with every bite."

"Nicknamed 'The Veldt,' Greenway Coffee’s summer espresso is a great expression of what Ethiopian coffee can be. Highly fruity with bright acidity, it’s like a shot of lemon and hibiscus, only in coffee form. Couple that with the fact that the Dungeon Lair location is buried in a food court, this drink makes for one of Houston's greatest culinary finds."

"Shanghai Restaurant is a family-run, Cantonese-style Chinese restaurant (despite what its name says). Chinese families around town have been following this family’s restaurant around town for years. It’s one of those places where you can always get a great meal, but their salt-toasted ribs are always memorable. They’re little tidbits of salty, crispy, umami-rich goodness."

"Sam’s is your quintessential greasy spoon, high-school hangout kind of place. They use store-bought buns and frozen patties, but they sure know how to work the griddle. The buns are toasted with butter, and they know exactly how to make a well-done burger still juicy—even when I normally hate anything well-done. Add mounds of mushrooms, several slices of Swiss cheese, and a handful of bacon. It’s still one of my favorite burgers in town where fancy chef burgers seem to have taken over."

"Himalaya is stuck in the middle of a strip center off of a freeway, but given how busy it always is, it's a testament to how good Chef Kaiser Lashkari’s cooking is. The décor isn’t much, but the chicken hara masala has a burst of colorful flavor, harnessing aggressive spices, and herbaceousness in the most tenderly braised chicken."

"In a town where it's hard to get good food late at night, Pho Binh by Night's phở with fatty brisket, tendon, and flank is one of the best dishes in town. What makes it even better is that you can get it at two in the morning AND add a side of bone marrow to it. The broth is slowly simmered and heavily perfumed with hard spices. They don’t skimp on the perfectly cooked meats, either. The Vietnamese restaurants here are second to none in this country: this is one of Houston's best examples."